The ever-advancing technology has undoubtedly positively impacted people in various ways especially in the financial sector, given the ease of transacting money.

However, there is evidence of the negative sides of technological advancements, among them online fraud.

One sector that has been hugely affected by online fraud is the digital lending sector, with scammers stepping up with fake identities, cheating unsuspecting users off their money.

According to TransUnion’s latest H2 2024 ‘State of Omnichannel Fraud Report’, Kenya saw a 4.6 percent rate of attempted digital fraud targeting transactions in the first half of 2024.

The report highlighted that 80 percent of Kenyan consumers encountered fraud attempts through online, email, phone, or text messages over the last three months of the survey with 8 percent falling victim to these scams.

One of the popular trick scammers use to steal money from Kenyans is through phone calls via voice phishing scams, also known as “vishing”

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Callers impersonate legitimate companies to steal money and personal information. Another way is whereby fraudsters direct customers to an agent, then pretend to be customer care to defraud the agent using the customer’s number.

To curb this menace, service providers have been cautioning consumers against sharing personal information with unverified contacts. The service provider further reveals their official customer service number to protect consumers from fraudsters.

For instance, the Timiza mobile apps customer service number is 0709213000. This means that any other number that contacts you purporting to be Timiza staff, is probably a fraudster.

“At Timiza, we will never call you requesting personal information. Beware of scammers claiming to be Timiza staff. Timiza will only contact on 0709213000,” Timiza warns.

The mobile banking platform allows users to access low-interest loans of up to Ksh150,000, save money and earn interest, pay utilities, and buy insurance.

The platform is operated entirely from mobile phone by dialing *848# or through the Timiza mobile app which can be downloaded from the Google Play store or IOS app store.